Ocean, nature, critters, and recreation

Jun 27, 2011

Bizarre-looking shark caught in Sea of Cortez baffles scientists

Lots of odd creatures come from the sea, and add to the list a one-eyed bull shark fetus that was removed from the body of its captured mother recently off La Paz, Mexico, in the Sea of Cortez.

A brief story about the shark is on the Pisces Sportfishing blog. Pete Thomas Outdoors shared the top image with two shark experts in California and both were skeptical at first, suggesting it was some kind of hoax.

One of them jokingly identified the species as a "Cycloptomus" because of a single eye -- if it is, in fact, an actual eye -- located just above the mouth.

But Tracy Ehrenberg, general manager at Pisces Sportfising, has been in touch with renowned shark expert Felipe Galvan, who has seen the shark and has even produced a paper on the discovery.

The paper is under scientific review. More information will be shared here when it becomes available.

Comments

You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

I remember seeing a very disturbing slide show during a genetics module at college as part of a course in Biology. Various genetic abnormalities were outlined and in turn photographic evidence was given. The genetic condition that causes 'cylopism' is well understood. Very disturbing to see esp' when affecting a human being.

Sea Of Cortez; The Shark Population is practically - gone thanks to few rules regarding how They can be caught. As A Surfer, who has the greatest respect for Big Wave Riders, I often wisth that The HUGE Waves that are sought in that area, had never been discovered….

If you people think that this creature's morphology is, in fact, impossible- just reflect upon how every domestic dog came from a grey wolf. Like selective breeding, mutation, coupled with genetic drift, can produce drastic phenotypical change over many generations. The change in gene frequencies over time is evolution. Although this shark obviously did not live to reproduce, it is a great example of how a single mutation can be markedly different and, in some instances, new heritable traits spring out of any species, as if by magic.

I hardly think it's real...I mean, anything is possible, but it just looks kind of photo-shopped. Shark eyes, for one, are not brown. They're black. If it actually is 'cyclopism,' as they eloquently put it, the result would not be a perfectly round eye. I've seen this defect in several images in my biology class, and it's more just two eyes kind of mushed together; it's always an oval, not a circle. Another thing...Sharks noses are not rounded like that. Mammals have rounded faces. Not fish. Sharks, especially, have pointed faces for streamlining.
Anything is possible in the crazy world we live in, but I'm calling this particular event a fake.

Not fake, even if it does look like Pleakley from Lilo and Stitch. The snubbed head is part of the developmental defect. For the eye, there's more white than you'd normally see but google "shark eye" images and see you can see its not out of range.

Sharks do not have brown, mammal-like eyes, or snubbed heads. Even if this were bog standard cyclopia, you don't get a perfectly formed, working eye; you get a pair of slightly-off-half-eyes fused in the middle. A simple mutation wouldn't do this. I'm calling this out as fake.

http://www.otellerx.com/otel/izmir/ I remember seeing a very disturbing slide show during a genetics module at college as part of a course in Biology. Various genetic abnormalities were outlined and in turn photographic evidence was given. The genetic condition that causes 'cylopism' is well understood. Very disturbing to see esp' when affecting a human being.

It's mother nature! But what it's really upsetting for me is the fact, that they catch a pregnant female. For sure in her belly were more baby sharks, who were closed to get born. It's disgusting how people can call 'killing' of a creature a 'sport'!?!

As one comment noted, cyclopia stems from a defects in a well characterized signaling pathway ("Hedgehog"). Most likely that defective pathway would cause other developmental problems and the shark would not survive too long. Also, unless we see more examples of this, it is more likely due to a random mutation, not from man made environmental toxins (as in The Simpsons).

Its a shame that these modern sportsmen do not follow catch and release practices, preserving the creature for its environment and on a wholly selfish note between sport fishermen, for other afficionados of the sport. undoubtedly this puts a lot of stress on the animal, but it would at least have meant that the foetus would have had a chance to see life and not only be presented to the world as a genetic abnormality. Evolution takes many a strange turn and what we perceive as abnormalities might actually be the inception of a new species or subspecies

I remember seeing a very disturbing slide show during a genetics module at college as part of a course in Biology. Various genetic abnormalities were outlined and in turn photographic evidence was given. The genetic condition that causes 'cylopism' is well understood. Very disturbing to see esp' when affecting a human being.